Art Baker

Art is the vagabond prince of Parys. Born in a time now passed, yet still relevant in the present, he is once again emerging from the Black Zone to play a part on the great stage.

Art’s mother is the famous vaudeville and occasionally burlesque dancer Josephine Baker, who fled from New York to Paris, where she fell in love with Corwin. Art is the result.

Brought up in Parys, with a mostly absentee father, he watched his mother wither and grow old as he remained timeless and youthful. His blues music has an air of tragedy to it.

Master of jazz clarinet, vocalist, and general party guy, Art has always played for his supper. Proud to admit that he has no fixed abode, he travels light, and lives, loves and moves on. A polite and courteous guest wherever he may be, he is always careful to not outstay his welcome.

There was a time in the early days of Parys, while Patterfall was still raging, that Art found his life changed. As a son of Corwin it fell to Art to take the regency of Parys when Corwin returned to the war, and it was Art who brought the Parysian occupying troops home from Brandenberg the first time that peace was declared. But politics was not art’s bag. He gave it a century, but then he could stand it no longer, and he passed the baton to another. Shortly thereafter began one of Parys’ darker ages.

Art went to the Black Zone. With duchies and baronies by the plenty there was always a place he could make his music and lay his head, and it has been two centuries more that have passed in his own lifetime. Now he returns once again, to find Brandenberg under the rule Queen Jasra bringing it’s occupying troops home from a Parys still in regency. Seeing Jasra brings back fond memories.

So – now Art is returned to the world stage, and is mostly living peacefully in Parys. He sticks to his standard policy of never staying in one place too long. He has let his less than charitable opinions of his brother Nikolaus be heard, and is generally supportive of the current Parys regime. Politics is not his favourite topic of conversation however, so getting his actual true views on multiversal affairs is not proving easy.